Walls Fall Down
by OfMockingjaysAndPrimroses
Summary: Emma tries to be alone to deal with the day's trauma, but Mary Margaret won't let her fend for herself, not again. Post 2x21 one-shot. Spoilers for "Second Star To The Right," so if you haven't watched that, don't read. Rated T for mild language(Emma being Emma).


As soon as she could escape, within reason, Emma went up to her bedroom, and flopped herself down onto her bed. The numbness that had overtaken her until now began fading away, replacing itself with bone-weariness.

She kicked her boots off and threw her coat to the end of the bed, then crawled between the sheets, not caring that it was the middle of the day. With one hand she reached out to the night-table and picked up her phone and her headphones that she so rarely used, switched the phone on, then set it to play a random playlist. As the soft music soaked through her mind, calming her, her shaky defenses began to lower, allowing her to relax. This had become one of her escape tactics, to hide from her problems until she wanted to handle them, but she knew she couldn't hide from this hulking monster of a problem for long.

She had to tell...oh, God, she had to tell Henry that she'd watched his father fall through a portal after being shot, hell if she knew where he'd landed, and she hadn't tried to save him from it. How was she supposed to go about telling him _that_?

_'Oh, kid, by the way, your dad just fell through a portal that his fiancé created and he's most likely dead now. Sorry I didn't save him._'

Emma let out a frustrated sigh at the idea, nope, that one was beyond definitely out. Before she could get too far into rephrasing how to bring up the topic, her door opened slowly, and Mary Margaret peeked her head through the crack.

"Emma? Are you..."

Thankfully, Mary Margaret didn't finish the sentence and so Emma was spared the trouble of lying to her mother. The older woman looked down thoughtfully for a moment before pushing the door open the rest of the way, shutting it behind her, and crossing the room to sit on the edge on Emma's bed.

Emma reached for her phone that was lying beside her under the covers and muted the music, pulling off her headphones, and forcing herself into a seated position. "Did you need something, Mary Margaret?"

That sounded harsher than she'd intended, but it was a bit late to take it back now.

Mary Margaret looked at her, and gave a small, almost shy smile.

"Yes, yes I did."

With that, her mother leaned forward and wrapped Emma in a tight hug. Emma's eyes widened at first, but then she relaxed into the hug, putting her arms around Mar–'no, Mom,' she corrected herself – in return. They remained like that for what seemed like an eternity, until Mary Margaret finally pulled back a bit, smiling openly at her daughter, unshed tears sparkling in the woman's eyes.

Emma gave a tentative smile back, warring within herself over her weakened walls Eventually the love she had for this best friend-turned-mother won out, and her walls crumbled, emotions of every sort flooding out. Emma choked back a sob and pulled her mother into another hug. "Thank you," she whispered, holding to Mary Margaret like a lifeline for as long as she could, wanting to believe a simple hug would make everything okay, or that she'd wake up in a minute and today would just be a nightmare. She knew it wouldn't, and that this was real, she was an adult and had to be dealt with as such, but in that moment, her temporary illusion was better than the truth.

* * *

**A/N: So...this appeared in my head a day or so after watching "Second Star To The Right". I'm not sure how even to classify this into a genre, it's just all over the place. Note: again, this has NOT been Betaed or even revised properly, and I typed this on a tablet late at night, so I apologize for any errors. I'm marking this as complete for now, but I may come back later and add to it, depending. Leave a review for me, please? It's so inspiring to see what others think of my work, so any and all critiques, praise, whatever, would be much appreciated, whether you leave it here or in my Tumblr ask box. Thanks! -Lily**


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